PLYMOUTH – Santa Claus’s financial records have been stolen, at least according to Equifax.

When Equifax offered a search option on its website for those wishing to learn if their information had been lifted, Rep. Randy Hunt, R-Sandwich, said he decided he’d test the system.

He typed in “Santa Claus” and made up Social Security digits, and, sure enough, Equifax came back with an affirmative answer.

“There goes Christmas,” an audience member mumbled.

From Equifax to the state budget, the 400th anniversary to the disappearance of brick and mortar retail, legislators and officials had it covered Friday morning during the sold out Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual Legislative Breakfast at Hotel 1620 on the Plymouth waterfront.

State and county officials dove into a wide array of topics, as the state’s financial, economic and social profile continues to morph to keep up with new technologies, bigger demands and an ever-increasing population, which has jumped 4 percent since 2010.

Economy

State Sen. Vinny deMacedo, R-Plymouth, noted that, while the stock market continues to do well and unemployment hovers at just 4 percent, state revenues are on the decline as health care costs, particularly MassHealth, drain state coffers. In the past, state revenues have increased by $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion year over year, helping to bolster the state’s rainy day fund, which used to weigh in at 10 percent of the state’s overall budget. DeMacedo noted that the $2.5 billion rainy day fund of 2007, when the budget rang it at $25 billion, has dwindled to $1.3 billion, with a budget of $40 billion today. Funds had to be expended to offset the recession years, he added, but it is imperative that the state continues to sock money away if it wants to hang on to its good bond rating and weather future economic storms.

“The reason I mention that is, despite the fact that everything seems good, the revenue is still not meeting expectations,” deMacedo said. “We end up having to do 9C cuts (Executive Branch budget cuts by the governor made mid-term to ensure budget balance). It’s a tense time for the legislature because no one wants to be in position to make cuts, but, at the same time, we have to live within our means.”

September revenue was up $125 million over last year, offering a glimmer of hope that an initial downward trend is reversing. However, deMacedo noted that the changing marketplace could take a bite out of jobs as the siren song of retail giant Amazon and other online stores draw shoppers.

“We’re seeing bricks and mortars collapsing all over the commonwealth and the nation as a whole,” deMacedo, who also serves on a special committee looking into the state retail industry, said. “And we need to think of ideas of how we prop up these downtown centers and how we prop up these brick and mortar businesses, because they create jobs. One in every five jobs in Massachusetts comes from retail.”

And technology trials don’t stop there.

Hunt noted that TransUnion and Experian are making a lot of money charging people $5 for credit account freezes in the wake of Equifax’ security breech that sent 145 million credit reports into the hands of potential thieves.

“You should skip the first stages of grief and go straight to acceptance,” Hunt told the audience, which erupted in laughter. “Your information was likely stolen.”

He recommended freezing these records so no one can open a credit account with the data.

Hunt said legislators have introduced a bill that would make it illegal to charge people for a credit report or for freezing their account.

“You should never have to pay for your credit file,” Hunt added. “One hundred forty-five million people were affected. If 10 million do what I did, that’s $100 million in fees just to flip a switch on a database that costs them zero. You should never have to pay for credit files, freezes and fraud alerts.”

Leadership

Leaders in positions of authority everywhere are under attack, at times subject to ruthless criticism, says Rep. Tom Calter, D-Kingston.

Calter believes the leadership paradigm is shifting, that service and leadership are interchangeable, and believes the country has lost its sense of what service is all about.

“That’s what leadership is about,” he said. “The days of 'command and control' forms of leadership are gone. They work in a time of crisis. They work in the military. They work in law enforcement. But in the rest of the world, the people that call themselves followers are not responding to a command and control type of management.”

Beyond sharing some quotations about leadership, and he said he had read about 200 of them, Calter hoped to inspire the leaders at the annual Legislative Breakfast by focusing not on leaders, but on the people he calls “followers” and their needs.

“I read through every one of those quotes, and not one of them said anything about the people being led, and I’m going to respectfully refer to them as the followers,” he said.

He describes the book he calls his business bible ("Credibility," by Kouzes and Posner) as the only book in which leaders are defined by the 75,000 followers they interviewed.

Those followers say they would follow a leader who understands that the leadership paradigm has shifted, that their job is to serve those in their organization. They follow leaders who are honest, forward-thinking, competent, inspire and fair-minded.

“Great leaders wake up and say, 'How do I serve people today,' and greatness finds them,” he said.

Calter cited this example. Nobel laureate Betty Williams, a housewife and part-time secretary in Northern Ireland, like so many others in her country, lived in war zone. After witnessing the killing of three siblings by the IRA, within two days, she had gotten 6,000 signatures on a petition calling for the Catholics and Protestants to come together and find a solution.

Within six days, she led a peaceful march to their graves to pray. Within 10 days, she led a march for peace with 35,000 people. Calter said she was a great leader “who touched through her service the hearts and souls of each individual who was hurting in Northern Ireland.”

Calter left the rostrum hoping that he gave his audience some food for thought.

2020

State Rep. Mathew Muratore, R-Plymouth, focused on 2020 and the 400th anniversary celebration of the settlement of Plymouth Colony by the Pilgrims. Muratore, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Tourism, talked about the importance of the state commission on the 400th, and the potential federal commission, which former Senate President and Plymouth resident Therese Murray is seeking to be established in Washington.

Muratore described the infrastructure investment the state has made so far leading up to 2020, including rebuilding the T-Wharf and the redevelopment of Water Street along the Promenade. He emphasized that the 400th celebration is as much about the state and the country as it is about Plymouth, citing a billion dollars in new revenue that could come from it. He said it's imperative that the business community get involved in this. "How can retail benefit?" he said.

Muratore and Calter both stressed the importance of civility in today’s politics, particularly as leaders set the tone constituents copy.

Drug crisis

The opiate crisis is always on the minds of county law enforcement officials, with the work of the Plymouth County Drug Abuse Task Force, which was created two years ago, continuing.

At Friday’s breakfast, Plymouth County District Attorney and Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph McDonald talked about efforts to combat drug abuse. Cruz said prosecutors need to have the tools to prosecute the traffickers of Fentanyl, Carfentanyl and other drugs that are killing people.

“I ask my legislative delegation to continue to fight for the minimum mandatory so that we can get the traffickers,” he said.

State Police look at every overdose like a murder investigation, Cruz said. And as of Oct. 1 in Plymouth County there had been 1,234 overdoses, including 103 fatal events.

Cruz also credited programs like Plymouth County Outreach program, in which a police officer out of uniform along with a social worker visits the home of an overdose patient within 12 to 24 hours to try to provide resources to the addict, and Plymouth County Hope. He also credited vigils for being an effective resource.

“Vigils make change,” he said. “People make change.”

Crime

McDonald shared interesting information on crime, having recently attended a meeting with Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the federal court. While nationally violent crime is up after many years of it going down, that’s not the case in Massachusetts, where those numbers are on the decline.

Two state prisons have closed in the last two years, and incarcerations are down in every county. He said resources are still needed, particularly with the drug problem.

McDonald said the prescription monitoring program requires doctors to notify central registry when prescribing opiates to prevent doctors from giving multiple prescriptions to one patient, therefore helping the patient as well. Violators from both sides will be prosecuted, he said.

DeMacedo said it’s clear that the nation has lost its way when prescribing prescription drugs, but the good news is there’s been a 15 percent reduction in prescription painkillers, and people are being trained in prescribing them. He said it’s about finding a balance because there are people who are in pain.

Cruz touched on other preventative efforts, like his recent visit to Silver Lake Regional Middle School students talking about Internet safety, and a recent session on the cycle of human trafficking, to get in front of the problem.

Digital data

While consumers grapple with the consequences of technological advances and hackers who take advantage of them, Register of Deeds John Buckley noted that in his world online data is making life a whole lot easier. Buckley noted that the registry is working to make 400 years of land records available online. Registry records dating to colonial times are being made available for perusal, he added, including the original land record of Pilgrim Governor William Bradford and early justice records.

“When you look at the original record, they voted in 1623 to allow trial by jury of your peers; it says ‘by a jury of 12 men'’ and they crossed that out and wrote in ‘12 honest men’” Buckley said, highlighting the power of these historic documents to communicate ideals from the past.

He added that the Registry has been partnering with Plymouth 400 and The Mayflower Society.

The real estate market continues to move, he added, with deed filings up 2 percent over last year, and two months ago the highest number of deeds was recorded in 70 years.

Overall, the tone was what many might term “cautiously optimistic,” as legislators and state officials offered updates on the state of the state.